Tuesday, March 16, 1999: "The real world"

[NonsenseWords]

This seems kind of weird to me. Given how beat up Ozy and Millie looked, and how Stephan had his underwear on his head (although I understand completely ignoring Stephan for any reason whatever), they just dismiss that sort of thing? Especially since Ozy was stuffed into a trashcan while in the hallway, which suggests that school was still in session and he had to go to class. Wouldn't the teacher notice that he was either (a) gone a long while in order to clean himself up and arrived to class unusually late, or (b) covered in trash and completely rumpled? Teachers are supposed to ask what's wrong.

Yeah, yeah, over-analysis of a comic strip involving talking foxes. Still, odd.

[Arloest]

I like how DCS portrays a public school principal as a likely-conservative, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps red blooded violence monger, whereas pretty much every conservative cartoonist portrays public school officials as bleeding heart liberals who want to indoctrinate our children with evolution.

[Bocaj Claw]

Off-topic, but I once had a conservative university professor.

I've heard arguments like this from school authority figures, and it always strikes me as unconscionable--a lazy dereliction of work, at best, a passive abetting of bullying at worst.

You know, I don't think the school in Calvin and Hobbes ever did anything about the bully Moe beating up Calvin either. And the Power Rangers never used their giant robots to step on Bulk and Skull. In fiction, the bully antagonists often don't get dealt with. This ensures ongoing dramatic potential.

Ozy helping Jeremy with his homework didn't stop the bullying in the long term. Millie suing him didn't stop the bullying in the long term.

[NonsenseWords]

Actually, there was a short arc in Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin mentions to his mother that he's being bullied, his mother mentions it to Ms. Wormwood, and the next day Moe comes up and grumbled about getting a talking-to and gives Calvin his lunch money back. I think there was also a different one where Calvin got advice about how to deal with him and when he did it just freaked Moe out so much he assumed that a teacher was waiting around a corner and stalked off.

As to Bulk and Skull... that's a very different situation. First of all, the Rangers were in high school. Bulk and Skull acted like elementary school bullies, and the Rangers knew they weren't a threat. In fact, past the first season, they stopped being out-and-out bullies, and by the third season even became good guys and joined the Angel Grove junior police squad. Also never mind that Power Rangers wasn't a cartoon and stepping on them would have resulted in HORRIBLE MURDER, not just comeuppance.

(Not a crazy Power Rangers fan, mind; I was recently watching a retrospective on the Mighty Morphin' era, and the characters of Bulk and Skull were explored as part of it.)

[Dr. Dos]

Bulk and Skull had an awesome theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwup4ItqyNQ

[Bocaj Claw]

NonsenseWords, have you been watching the Linkara special on the Power Rangers?

[NonsenseWords]

You caught me. ^_^

[Muninn]

As to Bulk and Skull... that's a very different situation. First of all, the Rangers were in high school. Bulk and Skull acted like elementary school bullies, and the Rangers knew they weren't a threat. In fact, past the first season, they stopped being out-and-out bullies, and by the third season even became good guys and joined the Angel Grove junior police squad. Also never mind that Power Rangers wasn't a cartoon and stepping on them would have resulted in HORRIBLE MURDER, not just comeuppance.

I never watched Power Rangers but reading that made me draw interesting parallels to A Clockwork Orange.

[Cactus Jack]

Actually, there was a short arc in Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin mentions to his mother that he's being bullied, his mother mentions it to Ms. Wormwood, and the next day Moe comes up and grumbled about getting a talking-to and gives Calvin his lunch money back. I think there was also a different one where Calvin got advice about how to deal with him and when he did it just freaked Moe out so much he assumed that a teacher was waiting around a corner and stalked off.

As to Bulk and Skull... that's a very different situation. First of all, the Rangers were in high school. Bulk and Skull acted like elementary school bullies, and the Rangers knew they weren't a threat. In fact, past the first season, they stopped being out-and-out bullies, and by the third season even became good guys and joined the Angel Grove junior police squad. Also never mind that Power Rangers wasn't a cartoon and stepping on them would have resulted in HORRIBLE MURDER, not just comeuppance.

(Not a crazy Power Rangers fan, mind; I was recently watching a retrospective on the Mighty Morphin' era, and the characters of Bulk and Skull were explored as part of it.)

The Power Rangers regularly knocked over buildings while fighting monsters, obviously killing hundreds of not thousands. What are two more on that total?

As for the school official, there is a point. You can only do so much without seeing it. Kids lie all the time. I wouldn't trust them. Obviously there should be people keeping an eye on the situation by DCS has trouble depicting people involved with the school as anything but evil, with an exception to the guidance counselor.

[Bocaj Claw]

Dude. Dude. Those were abandoned buildings. Angel Grove regularly built loads of empty buildings. It was the entire basis of their economic plan. They then sold these buildings to cities that needed them but didn't have time for construction. Check Wikipedia.

[NonsenseWords]

Dude. Dude. Those were abandoned buildings. Angel Grove regularly built loads of empty buildings. It was the entire basis of their economic plan. They then sold these buildings to cities that needed them but didn't have time for construction. Check Wikipedia.

Totally true. I read it on the Internet.

[Caoimhin]

Actually, I've had several problems with teachers and administration saying that they never saw anything. I remember playing floor hockey in Junior(?) year and having a hockey stick thrown at my back when I was facing away, he threw it from about 15ft away, teacher didn't see a thing, and no eyewitness accounts from classmates. I didn't say anything, he continued to call me a "fag" throughout the game, until at one point I just flipped and slammed my stick hard on his wrist... The gym teacher saw that and I got 3 days OSS (Out of School Suspension). I mentioned that he had hit me with a hockey stick earlier and thats when the teacher said he didn't see anything. None of my classmates bothered to say anything either...

However, his wrist was all swollen and I was unhurt, so I was quite happy. Although when he dropped the stick and was about to beat the hell out of me... I sort of ran .

As far as conservative administration and teachers are concerned, most in Sussex County (NJ) are. VERY conservative in fact. They do exist, I just happen to live in the only area of Jersey where they are so damn common . I think only teachers have the potential to be liberal, administrators could care less, school board politics is their concern, and budget cuts from the state (the only kind they get pissed off about, if they get a dock in pay THEN they become "liberal"). Same for teachers really, my highschool recently let the students protest the cut in education spending for an hour. If it were concerning anything else I'm sure they would get suspended.

[NonsenseWords]

stuff

There's a huge difference between high school and elementary school.

[Caoimhin]

stuff

There's a huge difference between high school and elementary school.

True, but I went through the same thing in elementary school. If the teachers never saw the bullying, nothing happened. Actually, the vice principal always believed me (and so did every other administrator), they just explained to me that unless they saw anything their hands were unfortunately tied. Several times my parents had requested for a certain bully to be in a different class from me, each time I didn't have him in a class he'd come in a few days after school started, he had apparently switched into the classes. This continued into middle school (just for clarification I went to a K-8 school, but to avoid confusion I mention 5-8th grade as being middle school).

[Tom_Radigan]

In my primary school years, we kids often fought with each other, but there was no equivalent of Jeremy.